Bill Simons
San Francisco
Elation is intoxicating. Andre Agassi, Taylor Fritz and a joyous Team World cadre left the Chase Center on Saturday night. Amazingly, they had won all four second round matches against Team Europe without dropping a set, and confidently grabbed a commanding 9-3 lead. Who woulda thunk it? Life is splendid. Agassi’s a genius.
Yes, Team Europe had a Viking, Casper Ruud, a world No. 1, Carlos Alcaraz, an Olympic gold medalist, Sascha Zverev, a great Dane, Holger Rune, and the tide of history on their side.
Team World just sighed and said, “So what?” A couple of South Americans, an Aussie demon, two California powerhouses, a Florida giant and the pride of the world’s gambling capital called Europe’s bluff.
But there was a problem. Team World had been to this rodeo before. Last year at the Uber Arena in Berlin, they were up 8-4 going into the final day, and were within two games of victory before they suffered the worst collapse in Laver Cup history.
Today, in Chase Arena, which is half a block from Uber’s international headquarters, they didn’t want to be taken for a ride again.
But Team Europe was facing a tall order. Their foes in the opening doubles match were 6’ 11” Reilly Opelka and 6’ 4” Alex Michelsen. Plus, Carlos Alcaraz was just 1-1 with white hair. More to the point, Team World raced to a 4-1 lead in the first-set tiebreak and a reflex volley off of Michelsen’s racket could have put them in a commanding position. But it just missed.
So Alcaraz and Ruud, two superb athletes who’d been in ten Slam finals and have two of the best forehands on the planet, proved to be too quick, powerful, savvy and clutch as they raced to a 7-6(4), 6-1 win. The Laver Cup’s new sponsor, Icelandic Water, informed everyone, “Be exceptional.” And Casper and Carlos were.
In a flash, Team World’s cocky confidence vanished like Andre’s long hair did 30 years ago. A troubling panic set in. Once ecstatic Captain Agassi suddenly was glum. Deja vu and dread descended. If two phenomenal Team Europe players, No. 17 Jakub Mensik, and Carlos Alcaraz, could prevail, Team World would have been humbled, again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
But there’s a reason Alex de Minaur, who lives in Spain and whose fiancée, Katie Boulter, is British, is called “the demon.” Sure, this appealing mate has no big weapons. His serve doesn’t bite. But you can’t hit through him. He beats you with his legs, his hands create, his mind grasps the moment, he anticipates like a leopard and grit is his pal. The demon had Mensik for lunch.
Now Chase Center fans wanted to know whether Cerundulo could go high in a town that knows a thing or two about that subject. In other words, could Francisco hold court in San Francisco? But, not far from Alcatraz, Alcaraz quickly put cuffs on the Argentine and locked up the match 6-2, 6-1.
So, after years of planning, San Francisco’s Laver Cup would come down to one match. All the dazzling hoopla of Laver Cup Week was behind us. Twelve matches were now in the book, and one truth came to mind. Years ago, Jimmy Connors told a US Open throng, “This is what they want, and this is what they’ll get!” Team sports always want their playoffs to come down to a deciding seventh game. Tennis promoters, the media and the fans alike were thrilled that the Laver Cup would be decided by one final match.
America’s top player, Taylor Fritz, who yesterday dismissed Carlos, would be playing the best player who’s never won a Slam – Sascha Zverev. And Fritz and fans alike knew that the German three-time Slam finalist has his own specialty: achieving excellence outside of the majors. An Olympic gold medalist and formerly No. 2, Sascha has won two ATP championships, has the best record in Laver Cup history, and, BTW, came within two points of winning the 2020 US Open.
If nothing else, Zverev’s career has been eventful: a lifelong battle with diabetes, a French Open ankle implosion that was one of the most wretched on-court injuries of recent times, and two deeply troubling accusations of domestic violence. This year at Wimbledon, Sascha candidly spoke of his loneliness on and off court, his lack of any joy in life, and how, when he woke up in the morning, he had no motivation.
Yet, surely, at crunch time, Sascha would be pumped. But the man with one of the best backhands of our era has been struggling with a bad back. He didn’t play for two weeks after the US Open and he’s been getting injections. Reportedly, for much of today, he’d laid on a couch.
Fritz, who’d beaten the world No. 3 five times in a row, prevailed in an early marathon point that was almost endless. Clearly, Sascha seemed diminished. There was little explosiveness. Fritz’s forehand dictated and his serve was a thunderbolt. His under-appreciated backhands found the lines, and the man with rock-star good looks was rock solid as he took the first set 6-3. His stats were stratospheric: 92% of first serves and 80% of second serves won. Plus, he prevailed on all of his 13 points at the net.
When Fritz again broke in the second set, Europe’s captain, unique Yannick, folded his arms. One sensed that Noah’s ark was sinking.
The German did gain two break points deep into the second set. But then his play dipped. A recent John McEnroe criticism came to mind: “Zverev plays not to lose. That has got him a long way…but it’s not enough against the best of the best. And if he wants to beat them, he’s got to step up.”
Today, he did. On his third break point chance, Sascha prevailed, to even the thrilling second set. Clearly he grabbed the momentum over a fading Fritz, who now was on his back foot. A crushing defeat seemed to loom. But, Jim Courier noted, “It’s amazing what you can learn in moments of extreme duress…Taylor knows exactly who he is, in moments of crisis, in moments of pressure. He knows his identity as a player…Zverev was intently asking for help with his identity in big moments.”
And, in the decisive second-set tiebreak, the California tennis boy from Rancho Santa Fe proved to be the man of the moment, scoring a spectacular backhand lob winner over his 6’ 6” foe as he claimed two mini-breaks, and then, with amazing calm, hit a little volley to score a huge win 6-3, 7-6(4) to secure Team World’s third Laver Cup triumph in eight years.
In just two days, fabulous Fritz had downed the No. 1 and No. 3 players in the world, and emerged as a San Francisco treat this city will long relish.
No, tomorrow there won’t be a parade down Market Street like there was when the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2014. Taylor Fritz’s backhand volley winner won’t be repeatedly replayed like Dwight Clark’s 1982 catch in the end zone against the Cowboys.
But tennis lovers will long remember the grit of an uber-professional athlete who’s gotten everything out of his game. He may have put his headband on backwards in New York, but today he got things straight and proved who’s boss. In the end, the man with the wavy hair didn’t waver.
OUR DIALOGUE WITH ANDRE: Inside Tennis noted that Andre Agassi is one of the greatest students that this game has ever had, and asked him what he’d learned from the players during this Laver Cup experience. He replied, “It’s a great question…I swear I’ve learned something from each player…I think the common theme is just how confident they are in what they do on a tennis court…It was amazing to watch their calm in the midst of storms…What I learned is to try to do more listening than talking, and try to stay out of their way and if they notice you, hopefully it’s only because you’re keeping their eyes on the prize.”
THE LAVER CUP AS A FORCE OF NATURE: The Laver Cup was a force of nature that came to town and touched all the bases: a community day of outreach for kids, fun, play and dinner at Stanford and the Cal Club, golf at the Olympic club, an iconic photo shoot under the Golden Gate Bridge. taking Alcaraz to Alcatraz, honoring Rocket Rod Laver and a black tie gala at the Civic Center. It drew celebrities. Federer coming to town brought to mind the Beatles at Candlestick Park, and there has rarely been a better coin toss than last night when Steph Curry, Federer, Agassi and others were on hand. BTW: We can’t exactly imagine the Davis Cup having this kind of impact.
HE MAKES LIFE DIFFICULT, BUT: Casper Ruud said his doubles partner Carlos Alcaraz “has 17 shots in his book to play. And I say, ‘Use the one that works.’ But then he chooses the most difficult one and makes it work.”
JUST WONDERING: San Francisco staged the Davis Cup in 1979. For years, until 1993, the city hosted a grand ATP tourney. The Laver Cup was a resounding, sellout success – what a triumph. So this begs the question: when will elite-level tennis return to the city?
NOAH’S MANTRA: The sign in the Team Europe locker room this week came from Captain Noah. It read, “Happiness is the major key to success, and whatever you do, do it with happiness.”
